Pitch perception in musicians is altered by short-term experimental manipulation

Subjects were tested for pitch matching before and after a one-hour exposure to seven component tones in which the first three harmonics were either sharp or flat by 3%. In the test for pitch matching the subjects were asked to adjust a tone consisting of harmonics 1–3 so that it matched the pitch of a tone consisting of harmonics 4–7. Comparison of the pre- and post-exposure matching performance indicated that subjects were exposed to the overtones that were tuned sharp matched higher while the subjects exposed to the overtones that were tuned flat matched significantly lower on the post-test. This data suggests that normal pitch perception may be an acquired skill which is not necessarily dependent on the periodicities of the complex waveform or the integer relationship of the harmonics.